NOVEL NEXT c40 - The Walking Tractor
As a fire element ability awakener, Shen Han could currently maintain flame coverage on her entire hand and wrist for only three seconds.
Three seconds, for many ordinary people, is just enough time to blink twice.
But for a quick-draw shooter, it’s enough to fire 15 shots!
Shen Han had calculated that within these three seconds, she must accomplish two things.
First, when her hand entered the fire, she had to grab the pipe stem directly, with no time to search slowly.
Second, she had to present it to everyone before the iron pipe stem could burn her.
She had come to break the ice, and whether the other side was deliberately making things difficult or not, she couldn’t back down now.
Facing a roomful of surprised or scrutinizing gazes, Shen Han suddenly raised her hand and slammed it down into the roaring fire pit.
The sudden inrush of air caused the flames to ‘whoosh’ outwards.
The sound of cracking charcoal was incessant.
The air seemed to flow with the scent of fierce fire and blood.
The Qubi tribespeople instinctively stepped back several paces.
Those faces that were originally filled with surprise gradually turned to shock.
“Slap!”
Shen Han heavily slapped the charcoal-covered iron pipe stem onto the table: “High Priest, I’ve shown you the sincerity you asked for. What do you plan to offer in exchange?”
Shen Han’s question wasn’t abrupt, as the other had clearly expressed earlier that for the first cooperation, both sides needed to show sincerity.
The High Priest shifted his gaze from his pipe stem on the table to the Alpha before him, his face now showing more gravity.
He pondered for a good while before slowly speaking: “In a couple of days, I’ll be representing the Qubi tribe to negotiate with the Shama tribe about dividing the Huangluozhi harvesting areas. You’ll come with me.”
Hearing this, Su Mu immediately snapped out of her previous shock.
She hurriedly said to her father: “Father, we can’t let her go! Outsiders can’t know about the Huangluozhi growing areas.”
The Qubi chief, however, shook his head dismissively: “Listen to the High Priest.”
Shen Han picked up the windbreaker she had placed on the ground earlier, covering her slightly burned arm, and smiled at the High Priest without saying anything more.
A meal must be eaten one bite at a time. This result had already exceeded her expectations; making more demands now would be inappropriate.
The High Priest looked at the young man he had hit with his pipe earlier: “Ashi, find a clean room for our guest and take her to rest.”
The young man named Ashi immediately perked up, calling two of his brothers to escort Shen Han and show her the way.
As they left the felt tent, he even took the initiative to lift the flap for her.
As soon as the group left the room, the biting cold wind swirled to meet them head-on.
Shen Han quickly put her windbreaker back on, zipping it up to her neck, and only then did the bone-chilling feeling slightly ease.
Turning her head, she saw the three tribal youths curiously examining her hand.
She simply rolled up her sleeve a bit to let them see more clearly.
The youth named Ashi asked with wide eyes: “How did you do that? Only the old shaman in our tribe can retrieve things from the charcoal pile.”
After a moment, he added: “But the old shaman’s hands are coated with medicine. You didn’t have any.”
Shen Han smiled mysteriously at everyone and said: “This is called a tactical foul. You absolutely mustn’t learn it.”
Ashi and the others were stunned, thinking: Even if we wanted to learn, we couldn’t.
Although the three simple tribal youths didn’t understand what “tactical foul” meant, they all thought it sounded impressive.
Not long after Shen Han entered the felt house, people came successively to bring her hot water, food, herbs, and a set of clothes that only warriors in the Qubi tribe were qualified to wear.
Early the next morning, when she walked through the tribe wearing black and red totem-embroidered clothing,
Every Qubi tribesperson who saw her would stop and stare for a while.
In the Qubi tribe, black represented nobility, while red represented valor.
This warrior’s attire was usually only worn by burly tribespeople who could tear apart pigs with their bare hands.
Unexpectedly, this fair-skinned and slender Alpha could wear the warrior’s outfit so well!
Shen Han strolled along, walking to the wooden cage where she had been confined yesterday.
The three young students locked inside were immediately stunned.
They thought: Didn’t this person escape from the cage last night?
Not only had she not been caught and beaten by the Qubi tribe, but now she was even coming back to show off?
Compared to the students’ surprise, the middle-aged man who sold goods felt as if thunder had rolled through his mind.
He was very clear about what the warrior’s outfit the other was wearing represented.
He was shocked: What on earth had that Alpha done? How could she gain such a level of recognition from the tribe’s High Priest overnight!
After wandering around the wooden cage for a while, Shen Han went to chat with people in the tribe.
She now knew that these tribal people were well aware of the scarcity of resources in their living area and had a great desire for products that could improve their quality of life.
Their stubbornness wasn’t due to resistance to science and technology, but fear that once modern civilization intervened, their culture and thousands of years of heritage would be cut off.
So they preferred to do business with smugglers who resold goods, rather than accept the assistance and cooperation of Federation government personnel.
Shen Han pondered that this problem wasn’t actually difficult to solve.
Her Miss Gu’s ideology wasn’t to assimilate all people into assembly-line workers.
As long as the lines of communication were opened here, Miss Gu would be fully capable of allowing the tribes to maintain their own heritage while also bringing them a more convenient and affluent life.
Time quickly arrived at the day agreed upon for negotiations between the two tribes.
Shen Han had originally thought she would be riding horses with the High Priest and others, but she never expected a withered old man to drive out a walking tractor from the tribe!
Six people were sitting in the trailer behind the tractor.
The burly Princess Su Mu was also in the vehicle, and when she looked at Shen Han, she glared fiercely.
Shen Han ignored her and instead looked at the High Priest beside her with slight surprise: “You’re using this?”
The High Priest calmly explained: “Riding horses isn’t convenient for hiding guns. We have an agreement with the Shama tribe that during negotiations, no one is allowed to carry guns on their person.”
After hearing the High Priest’s words, Shen Han was secretly alarmed: This operation was truly outrageous!
Not allowed to carry guns on their person, but it’s okay to hide them in the tractor?!
When Shen Han and the High Priest also got into the trailer, the group set off on their bumpy journey.
With the High Priest sitting on her left and the tribal youth Ashi on her right, Shen Han suddenly felt like she was squeezed into a subway during rush hour.
Su Mu sat directly opposite Shen Han.
Along the way, she couldn’t help but secretly glance at the other’s hands.
There were no burn marks, no swelling. Those hands were like the white jade stones used in tribal offerings, both clean and beautiful.
Su Mu suddenly thought of tender white winter bamboo shoots, no, even winter bamboo shoots weren’t as pretty as the other’s fingers.
The walking tractor chugged along, spewing smoke for over two hours.
Just as they were about to enter the meeting point agreed upon by the two tribes, Shen Han suddenly said to the High Priest beside her: “Turn left for 500 meters.”
The High Priest looked at the shallow grassland to the left and told the withered old man driving to do as she said.
Seeing that they were almost at their destination, yet that Alpha suddenly told them to change direction, and the High Priest agreed, made Su Mu feel somewhat angry.
She raised her eyes to glare at the person sitting opposite her again, but the other was looking sideways at the grassland, causing her glare to miss its target.
Shen Han stared at the fresh tire tracks on the gray mud, immediately recognizing that they weren’t from a tractor.
Those were tracks left by off-road vehicles!
The High Priest also carefully examined those tracks, and as he looked, his expression became grim.
Although he couldn’t tell what kind of vehicle had made them, he knew that the presence of these tracks here was definitely not a good sign.
“Turn around, go back!”
Shen Han’s voice echoed lowly in the trailer, then was drowned out by the tractor’s noise.
Before the High Priest could speak, Su Mu, sitting opposite Shen Han, finally couldn’t hold back: “Why should we listen to you?”
Shen Han just glanced at her, then instructed Ashi on her right to quietly have everyone load their muskets and place them at their feet where they could be easily grabbed.
By now, the High Priest had already told the old driver to quickly turn around as Shen Han had said.
He couldn’t explain why he was following the words of this strange Alpha, but he had an inexplicable feeling that this stranger wouldn’t harm them.
Just as their tractor had traveled less than a kilometer back, two men from the Shama tribe caught up with them on horseback.
“High Priest of the Qubi tribe, our chief sent us to escort you!”
“You’ve gone the wrong way, come back quickly!”
At this point, all the Qubi tribespeople on the tractor felt that something was amiss.
Because the timing of the others’ appearance was too convenient.
They had just turned around to leave when they were chased, and this place was actually still quite far from the agreed meeting point.
“What should we do? They must have more people ambushing us behind.”
The High Priest’s voice was urgent and deep. Unable to understand why the Shama tribe would do this, he instinctively asked the Alpha beside him for advice.
This scene was incredible for the Qubi tribespeople on the vehicle.
Because their High Priest had always been the leader of the entire tribe.
And now, such a person was handing over the decision-making power to the Alpha beside him.
Shen Han kicked up a musket and gripped it in her hand, quickly saying: “The tractor is too slow, and we’re too concentrated a target. Go to that forest ahead, then abandon the vehicle and enter it. Tell the old driver that no matter what, he must not stop!”
Just as she finished speaking, the two Shama tribe brutes had chased to within 100 meters on horseback.
Seeing one of them pull out a handgun from his chest, Shen Han immediately raised her gun barrel and pulled the trigger, aiming at his shoulder.
The huge gunshot scared away a flock of winter finches from the nearby forest and startled the Shama man who had just drawn his gun.
The tribal muskets had short range and poor accuracy.
Shen Han’s first shot didn’t hit the target.
She immediately kicked up another loaded gun, recalling the deviation of the previous bullet, corrected her aim, and pulled the trigger again.
Not far away, the burly man on horseback shuddered and fell from his mount.
The whole process took less than five short seconds.
Just as the second gunshot fell, two off-road vehicles suddenly burst out from the distant slope behind the tractor.
The wide tires churned up flying mud in the air, like two huge beasts, rapidly pouncing towards Shen Han and her group.